Family Food - Enchiladas

I'm soooo extremely tired. The Bairn has been poorly, and also has another tooth on its way. The only thing he wants to eat is yoghurt - regardless of what lovely homemade dishes I present before him. The result being that I'm making several different dishes at each meal in the hope he'll actually eat something. It's so awful when our babies are unwell, isn't it? Feeling so helpless. All I want is for him to be his usual cheeky, perma-hungry, cat-chasing self...

So on that depressing note, here's a recipe for enchiladas. I imagine it has absolutely no resemblance to the actual enchiladas you would find in actual Mexico, but bugger it. It's delicious and cheered up our little family tonight! The Bairn did not find it to be agreeable; instead consumed 3 spoonfuls of Weetabix, a raspberry yogurt and a cup of (very weak) Ovaltine.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts diced
Onion diced
Clove of garlic crushed
A pepper diced
6 baby corns chopped
Handful of green beans chopped
Tin of chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Black pepper

6 flour tortillas

Grated cheddar
(for kids over one, pinch of salt if you want it, and a generous pinch of caster sugar.)

PHOTOS BELOW, CHAPS!

1. Pan fry the chicken until sealed
2. Add onion and garlic, stir fry until onions are soft
3. Add paprika, chilli, ginger and pepper - fry for a few minutes
4. Add peppers, baby corn and green beans, stir fry for few more minutes
5. Add chopped tomatoes, simmer for 10 minutes - cover if your pan allows it - then stir in salt and sugar if using (not essential) heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
6. Arrange tortillas in a dish as shown below
7. Spoon chicken/veg into each tortilla "shell", then fold tortilla over the top
8. Ladle remaining sauce over the top (thin it with water if you've little left, or it's all congealed)
9. Cover with cheese
10. Bake in oven for 20 minutes - should be golden, and smell AMAZING

 

 

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Topic 2. Arts and Crafts - A New Project!

It's been soooo so long since I've painted anything. Only two short years ago, I had aspirations of changing my career and becoming a professional illustrator. Aye, right! Unlikely! A sharp decrease in stress levels as I embarked upon my illustration "career" at college (saying a cheeky "smell ya later, bitch" to optometry - except on Saturdays) resulted in the unexpected conception of The Bairn, or Pip as he was then known. We'd been on the waiting list for IVF (a 22 month marathon in our health board area), and therefore absolutely amazed and delighted that this amazing, pip-sized little smidge had decided to take up residence in my uterus. Especially considering I had seemed uninhabitable to previous prospective tenants.

My new career became Mum, followed by Mum/optometrist (see, I did smell you later, optometry - and you smell exactly the same as you did before. Musty, with the occasional ammonia tinge of cyclopentolate).

I've seen a few things lately that made me think "Come on wummin! Get yer brushes oot, pencils sharpened and pinny on! You could be painting/drawing etc, instead of watching another episode of Dexter/Castle/Modern Family, you lazy little b*do." A couple of days ago though, I was feeling really miserable, and decided to drag the wee man out for a walk in the extremely cold Scottish sunshine. We took a saunter along the canal, which was so still every autumnal shade was reflected in it like a mirror. The fallen leaves were rustling under the buggy wheels, opulent green Mallards were quacking as they glided along the water and The Bairn was treated to his first field full of PROPER cattle, the black and white ones like his own stuffed toy. (Which, by the way, scares the living crap out of him when you squeeze it and it moos.)

Forth and Clyde Canal

So here's a beautiful photo I took with my mobile. How can anyone have an off-day with that on their doorstep? And today I TOOK ACTION. I went onto www.discountart.co.uk and bought 4 canvases, a few huge tubs of acrylic paint and some varnish. All thanks to PayPal, which is responsible for my first pay cheque from my proper job having practically disappeared 2 weeks into the month.

I'm going to do a split canvas for the wall above the fire in the living room.

As a split canvas photo print in this size was priced at £150.... Think I'll have a crack at it myself, lads.

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